Vote on Zelaya happens today

Honduras's Congress will vote shortly on whether to re-install former President Manuel Zelaya as a lame-duck president through late January.

Zelaya, upset that he was not returned to power sooner, has said he no longer wants to be reinstated, but the Congress agreed to take the vote as a condition of the U.S. recognizing Sunday's election of a new president.

Although much has been made of State Department's language on Sunday's election — that it was “significant,” but not “sufficient” to end Honduras's political crisis — the more important language is this reassuring statement from Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela:

“The elections provide the Honduran people with a way out. And these elections are not elections that were planned by a de facto government at the last minute in order to whitewash their actions…These elections were elections that began several months ago. In fact, the primaries were held in November of last year in each of the major parties.”